Submit to Development

Terms of Submission

Development considers for publication original research that has not been previously published. Submission to Development implies that this is the case and that the submitted manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

During the submission process, authors are asked to declare that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors. Submission also implies that authors agree to abide by Development's publishing policies, including the declaration of any competing interests to the journal on submission of a manuscript.

Development uses the CRediT Taxonomy to define author contributions to primary research papers and requires that the independent contributions of each author be provided during online submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that contributions are agreed on by ALL co-authors prior to manuscript submission. Please refer to journal policies for further information on our authorship policies.

Upon article acceptance, most Research Articles and Techniques & Resource papers are posted on the journal web site as accepted author manuscripts (Accepted manuscripts) before journal copyediting and layout and in advance of publication of the print and online issues in which they will subsequently appear. Authors should select whether or not they want their accepted author manuscript to be posted as an Accepted manuscript by ticking the relevant check box during the submission process.

Development also coordinates with bioRxiv, the preprint server for biology, to provide easy deposits from our manuscript submission system directly to bioRxiv. Authors can choose to post submitted manuscripts on bioRxiv, where the unrefereed manuscript will become free for anyone to read immediately. Please note that this is an optional service but that, once deposited in bioRxiv, articles cannot be removed. Further details can be found here.

Development supports the Think.Check.Submit. initiative. For more details, click on the image below:

Online Submission

New manuscripts

Development is committed to making submission as easy as possible for authors. As part of this commitment, we have introduced format-free submission.

At first submission, authors are no longer required to format their manuscript according to journal guidelines. However, for the benefit of reviewers and editors, we do still encourage authors to make their manuscripts as easy to read as possible and to use appropriate line spacing and line numbers.

For new submissions, we recommend that you submit your paper as a single PDF file that contains all the necessary text, figures and tables.

Our submission system converts submitted files (PDFs or individual files) into a PDF file for the review process. The corresponding author must check and approve the PDF to complete the submission process; if there are problems with figure resolution, please contact the Editorial Office.

During the submission process, you will be asked to provide an email address for each author and suggested reviewer. When providing a non-institutional email address (e.g. gmail), an ORCID identifier is also required. Papers submitted using non-institutional email addresses and without ORCID iDs will require additional verification steps, which may cause delays. All corresponding authors are also required to submit an ORCID iD and it is best practice to use an ORCID iD to identify each author.

As a service to our authors, and to facilitate rapid dissemination of research results, Development offers two-way integration of our manuscript submission system with the bioRxiv preprint server (operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) – avoiding the need to re-enter information or upload files in multiple submission systems. During submission to Development, authors can opt to deposit their article in bioRxiv through a simple one-click process. In addition, authors depositing a manuscript in bioRxiv can transfer their paper directly to Development through their transfer portal. Once deposited in bioRxiv, either directly or through our deposition portal, the unrefereed manuscript will become free for anyone to read almost immediately and cannot be removed, regardless of the editorial decision made at Development. It will be citable with a bioRxiv DOI, its usage can be tracked, and it can be updated. Please ensure that all co-authors agree to preprint deposition before uploading or transferring to bioRxiv. Consideration of your manuscript for review and/or publication by Development is not influenced by whether you choose to post it on bioRxiv.

Revised and accepted manuscripts

For revised submissions and accepted manuscripts, please provide all the necessary text and figures as individual files.

To help you meet your funder requirements, you will be asked to provide details of all funding sources from ALL authors. Please provide the full official funding agency name as listed on the Crossref Funder Registry, and all relevant grant numbers. See our manuscript preparation guidelines for more details.

Please note that revised manuscripts will be treated as a new submission if they are not submitted within 3 months of the date of the initial decision.

For more information on the types of articles that can be submitted to Development, please visit our article types page.

Publication fees

Reducing the pain to publish: transfer to Biology Open

Papers rejected from Development can be transferred, strictly with the authors’ approval, to Biology Open (BiO), an online-only Open Access journal also published by The Company of Biologists, for editorial consideration. The Editors of BiO make their editorial decisions independently of Development, have different criteria for acceptance and have a rapid decision time. Click here to find out more about the transfer option and see who has published in BiO.